Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Sunday, November 06, 2011

Occupy Protesters, Cops Struggle to Balance Conflict With Sympathies


It was the chant that defined a generation. "The Whole World is Watching" was the battle cry of anti-war demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, as violence raged in the streets of Chicago, and Mayor Richard Daley's police department unleashed an epic show of force.

Fast-forward 43 years to today's "Occupy" protests, and from Twitter to Tumblr, Facebook to Foursquare, the chant couldn't be more relevant as the anti-Wall Street movement spreads, confrontations with police escalate, and reports of crime inside the camps multiply. But what are we seeing?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

These people don't even have a clue of what they are protesting for. They consist of mostly people who think they are entitled to something. Some are afraid they will have their entitlement taken away , and I hope so.
I guess the best way to describe them is just plain lazy.

Anonymous said...

9:18 AM

The best way to describe you is ignorant/stupid. It is YOU who do not know what these people are protesting. Most other people do know, including the so called 1%ers.

Anonymous said...

That tension is evident at City Hall in New York, where Bloomberg lashed out after unconfirmed reports that Occupy Wall Street protesters are letting crimes go unreported.

"Instead of calling the police, they form a circle around the perpetrator, chastise him or her and chase him or her out into the rest of the city to do who knows what to who knows whom," he said. "if this is in fact happening, and it's very hard to get good information, it is despicable."

Maybe it's from the past and present actions and attitudes of the police themselves?

More and more we are seeing so called 'bad apples' doing wrong. From planting evidence on completely innocent people to fulfill quotas to assaults on civilians to outright illegal acts including but not limited to burglary theft and murder.

We hear everyday about gangs. The police in general have become a gang themselves.

The only difference is the law protects them and allows them to act with impunity.

Police work is not the once noble profession it was thought to be.

Anonymous said...

"In light of the growing violence attendant to the Occupy movements across the country, particularly as evidenced by the recent events in Oakland, I am compelled to place these so-called 'occupiers' on notice that physical assaults on police officers will not be tolerated," he said.

But assaults from police to civilians will be tolerated.